Our School Leadership Team has been discussing the discipline policy and wanted to make it available and accessible to all families. Please see below.

MSC Discipline Policy

At MSC, when dealing with discipline issues, we use the Responsive Classroom approach. This emphasizes teaching children to take care of themselves, each other, and the school environment so that everyone can learn at his/her best. There is a strong emphasis on students setting goals for their own learning and taking responsibility for reaching these goals. To be successful academically and socially, children need to learn cooperation, assertion, responsibility, empathy, and self-control

Rules and Logical Consequences: The teacher and students create rules for the classroom that will allow everyone to do his/her best. When students break the rules, there are clear and non-punitive consequences that help them learn from the mistake. The approach teaches responsibility and self-control.

When a student begins to show a pattern of behaviors that interrupt his/her learning or the learning of others, teachers will make calls home, maintain anecdotal records and consult with Darlene, Michelle and Claire. Teachers will remove a student from class only if the student is consistently disrespectful and disrupts learning. In such a case, teachers will maintain objective anecdotal records of the student’s behaviors, of previous interventions, and of correspondences with the student’s family.

Teachers will also contact families if students show a pattern of absence, or lateness, do not have homework, are not prepared for school, and/or disrupt learning for two consecutive days.

If the student continues to exhibit disruptive behaviors, the classroom teacher will contact the Assistant Principal, or the Guidance Counselor(s), or other school staff depending on the issue. Parents are contacted, a meeting is often set up between all parties (including the student) in order to address the behavior by engaging the student in intervention and prevention strategies.

Intervention and prevention approaches include but are not limited to guidance support and services; social/emotional learning, such as conflict resolution/peer mediation; enrichment services; and/or development of functional behavioral assessments and behavioral intervention plans.

Every reasonable effort will be made to correct student behavior through Responsive Classroom. The DOE Discipline Code will be consulted when the student continues to engage in repeated misbehaviors despite prior interventions. Infractions are grouped into five levels based on the severity of the infraction, from Level 1 (Uncooperative/Noncompliant Behavior) to Level 5 (Seriously Dangerous/Violent Behavior). Disciplinary responses range from In-School Disciplinary Actions (Removal from classroom by a teacher), Principal's Suspension, and/or Superintendent's Suspension.